{"id":3788,"date":"2013-11-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2013\/11\/19\/beck-on-spotify-the-model-doesnt-work-and-the-quality-sucks\/"},"modified":"2013-11-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T00:00:00","slug":"beck-on-spotify-the-model-doesnt-work-and-the-quality-sucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2013\/11\/19\/beck-on-spotify-the-model-doesnt-work-and-the-quality-sucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Beck on Spotify: \u201cThe Model Doesn\u2019t Work. And the Quality Sucks.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"


So, at what point does Spotify have a serious artist problem?\u00a0 The latest sharp criticisms are coming from Beck, who regards Spotify as an unavoidable evil, but one that simply can\u2019t support his music (either financially, or with the proper fidelity).\u00a0\u00a0 Here\u2019s what he recently told P\u00e0gina\/12 on the matter, an Argentinian publication (Beck is touring South America; the interview is published in Spanish).
P\u00e0gina\/12: Thom Yorke of Radiohead has strongly spoken out against Spotify and streaming in general, not just for the sound quality, but because they pay almost nothing to the musicians. What do you think?<\/p>\n

Beck: Streaming is inevitable, it\u2019s something that is coming, like it or not.\u00a0 But I question how I can hang on or stay afloat with this model, because what Spotify pays me isn\u2019t enough for me to pay the musicians I work with, or the people producing or mastering my music.\u00a0 The model doesn\u2019t work, so we have to come up with ways in which people can help us to make music for free, or at least for much less.\u00a0 But the current way isn\u2019t working, something\u2019s gotta give.<\/p>\n

If I tried to make my albums with that Spotify pays me, I wouldn\u2019t make them.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t hire other musicians or someone to master it; I\u2019d have to do everything myself.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s something a lot of people are doing, and that\u2019s fine, but that\u2019s a different kind of music entirely.<\/p>\n

[Later, in a discussion about sound quality…]<\/p>\n

But I think the saddest thing about streaming is, as you said, the issue of sound quality.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spoken with many musicians and engineers who feel the experience is completely different.\u00a0 It\u2019s like watching The Citizen on your phone.\u00a0 That\u2019s what people are listening to!\u00a0 If you come to my house, you\u2019ll hear things in a totally different way.\u00a0 You\u2019ll hear my songs the way they were meant to be heard, which is not what most people are listening to it. <\/p>\n

Hopefully, we will find the way to change that.<\/p>\n

Pagina\/12: And the vinyl comeback is only being enjoyed by a few\u2026<\/p>\n

Beck: Sure, it\u2019s inconvenient, but it is a beautiful object and I think it will outlast the CD.\u00a0 But there are many opportunities to improve digital fidelity and I know that Neil Young is working on a system to accomplish that.\u00a0 Eventually it will happen and people will fall in love with the music.<\/p>\n

Pagina\/12: Do you feel like you\u2019re part of, or included in, the music industry?<\/p>\n

Beck: I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever felt comfortable with the industry, I feel comfortable making music, playing. I think most musicians feel alienated from the business side of music. If all the musicians left their creative sides to create a \u2018business of music,\u2019 it would be totally different that what it is now.\u00a0 We\u2019re in a business created specifically for business people and marketing.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how the world works, because music is like any other product they have to sell: they need to think about how to deliver it to people.<\/p>\n

But if left to musicians, it would be something completely different, I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n

Source: Digital Music News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, at what point does Spotify have a serious artist problem?\u00a0 The latest sharp criticisms…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}